AI screening trial of 700,000 women aims to improve breast cancer detection

A major breast cancer screening trial using artificial intelligence is being launched in the UK, and could result in a “significant step forward” in catching the disease early.

More than 700,000 women are expected to take part in the trial, which aims to cut waiting times, the government said. Women who are already booked in for routine NHS screenings will be invited to take part in the £11 million programme, which is backed by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Around 30 testing sites across the country will be enhanced with AI technology. Prof Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and chief executive of the NIHR, said the trial could result in a “significant step forward in the early detection of breast cancer”, offering women faster and more accurate diagnoses.

It comes as the government launches a call for evidence from experts, patients and medics to help shape a national cancer plan to transform how the disease is treated in a bid to reduce deaths.

According to Breast Cancer Now, about 55,000 women and 400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK. Women are automatically invited for screening between the ages of 50 and 53, and then every three years until they turn 71.

At the appointments, X-rays known as mammograms are taken to look for cancers that are too small to see or feel. At the moment, two radiologists are required to review the images from each screening to ensure accuracy.

However, it is hoped the AI being trialled will enable one to complete the process, freeing up radiologists to see more patients and, in turn, cut waiting lists.

“Catching cancer weeks earlier could be the difference between life and death – and these trials could not only help to get women faster access to treatment but reduce pressures on our NHS,” Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said.

Dr Katharine Halliday, president of the Royal College of Radiologists, welcomed the trial, and said AI has “immense potential” and will play a “vital role” in meeting increasing demand across diagnostics, cancer care and the NHS as a whole.

“Given the volume and complexity of breast screening, if AI is found to be safe and effective it could make a major impact on radiology,” she added. “However, this is a rigorous study that will take time to yield results. With a projected 40 per cent shortfall in consultant radiologists by 2028, the need to build radiology capacity remains urgent.”

Claire Rowney, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said technology has the “potential to improve breast screening” but called for issues with the current programme to be addressed. “And, of course, any changes to the breast screening programme must be supported by robust evidence that demonstrates any new innovation or tool is safe and effective for women in the UK,” she added.

The British government has announced it will publish the national cancer plan later this year. The blueprint will aim to improve research, diagnosis, screening, treatment and prevention, and will also include specific measures for rarer forms of the disease, including those that affect children.

The government has relaunched the children and young people's cancer taskforce, bringing together experts to help create plans to improve detection and treatment.

Leading cancer professors Mark Lawler and Pat Price said that while cancer survival has improved in the UK over the past 50 years, it “still lags behind many other high-income countries”. “The real danger is a tick-box unambitious cancer plan that is set up to fail,” they wrote in an editorial published in the journal Lancet Oncology.

“The UK needs to be a leader and not a lagger. Incremental change will not be enough. We need strategies to supercharge both early diagnosis and treatment, with ambitions and accountable targets that are met. If we do not succeed, patients in the UK will continue to needlessly die.”